'It's Over,' Donald Trump Says, Eyeing Victory In Indiana

"It's already over," the GOP presidential hopeful proclaimed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Front-runner Donald Trump said on Sunday that he will have essentially sealed the Republican U.S. presidential nomination if he wins Tuesday's contest in Indiana, where he holds a big lead over chief rival Ted Cruz.

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist opinion poll showed Trump with a wide lead in Indiana, 49 percent to 34 percent for Cruz and 13 percent for a third candidate, Ohio Governor John Kasich.

Trump, a 69-year-old billionaire real estate developer, sounded confident in an interview on "Fox News Sunday" when asked whether Indiana would basically end the long-running Republican race in his favor.

"Yes, it's over," Trump said. "It's already over."

The poll showed the depth of the challenge facing Cruz, a conservative U.S. senator from Texas who is trying to prevent Trump from winning the 1,237 delegates needed to seal the nomination.

Cruz's hopes rest on emerging as a consensus alternative to Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 18-21. Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 68, leads U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, 74, of Vermont in the race for the Democratic nomination.

On NBC's "Meet the Press," Cruz, 45, was asked several times whether he would support Trump if the New York businessman was the Republican nominee. Cruz evaded the question each time and turned the questions into an attack on broadcast media.

“I recognize that many in the media would love to see me surrender to Donald Trump because that means that Hillary wins. The media has given $2 billion in free advertising to Donald Trump," Cruz said.

Cruz said he has momentum in Indiana based on his choice of former candidate Carly Fiorina for his vice president and Friday's endorsement by Indiana Governor Mike Pence.

Americans will elect a successor to President Barack Obama on Nov. 8.

'THE MOST UNELECTABLE PERSON'

Trump, who has amassed 996 delegates, according to an Associated Press count, has momentum behind him and looks increasingly likely to win the nomination outright, without a contested convention, perhaps when California votes on June 7.

Indiana has 57 Republican delegates. Three are awarded from each of the state's nine U.S. congressional districts with the candidate who receives the most votes taking them all. The 30 others are awarded to the candidate who wins the most votes statewide.

At a rally in Terre Haute, Indiana, Trump urged Republicans to join his "movement" and turn out for him in big numbers.

"The more we can win by in Indiana is so important. It’s a mandate ... a really important mandate. It’s a mandate for change, but not Obama change. Real change. It’s a mandate for genius," he said.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a leading Republican critic of Trump, called him the "most unelectable person" the party could nominate. Graham had sought the nomination himself.

"Keep fighting Ted," Graham told CBS's "Face the Nation."

CLINTON URGES SANDERS QUIT

On the Democratic side, front-runner Clinton told CNN’s “State of the Union” that rival Bernie Sanders has been “helpful” in bringing millions of people into the party's presidential race, but it was time for him to step aside.

"There comes a time when you have to look at the reality," said Clinton, who won four of the five Northeastern states that voted last Tuesday and who has a big lead in the delegate race ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 25-28.

Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton and a former U.S. senator from New York, waved off Trump's attacks on her. Trump has said Clinton would be getting little support if she was not a woman.

"I have a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation in the way they behave and how they speak. I'm not going to deal with their temper tantrums or their bullying or their efforts to try to provoke me. He can say whatever he wants to say about me. I could really care less," Clinton said.

In his Fox interview, Trump defended at length his views on foreign policy, which he outlined in a speech last week in Washington that drew criticism for sometimes contradictory views. Trump said he would move quickly to destroy Islamic State's militancy, but would resist interventionist policies in order to focus on nation-building at home.

Trump said "every move we made in the Middle East was wrong" over the past 15 years, with lives and money wasted. He said he would resist such policies.

Asked whether the United States should return to working with "strongmen" leaders like the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Trump said: "Isn’t it too bad that we knocked him out in the first place?"

Furia ACK sprayed&nbsp;this portrait of Donald Trump in London's East End&nbsp;in January -- only to then pelt it with raw eggs and encourage other passersby to do the same. "<a href="http://www.london24.com/news/quirky-london/donald_trump_gets_egged_in_shoreditch_1_4391731" target="_blank">I honestly believe a lot of people in the same situation would gladly do the same</a> against him and his views,&rdquo; the artist told London 24.